Counting down

Our Advent has been fruitful, quiet, and relaxing.  I tried to get all my Christmas shopping, planning and card making done fairly early in Advent so I would have time to reflect on the reason for the season.  The boys have been very diligent with hanging up their Jesse Tree Ornaments and coloring the corresponding pages in their coloring books.  We have also enjoyed Advent wreath lit family dinners.  We just purchased our Christmas tree on Wednesday and got all our decorating done that evening as well.  Plus side to waiting a week before Christmas to purchase a tree is that the trees were all 1/2 price!

The boys have been counting down the last few days until Christmas!  We will be staying home and hope to have some relaxing and quality family time.  I am definitely looking forward to Gabe taking a few days off although he will still need to get some writing done from home.  As of today the boy's school books have been happily tucked away for a two week break.  That is, if we last that long and don't get too bored.  ;) I'm happy to report that our second quarter has been completed and tests have been sent in and graded.

So Wednesday was my big ultrasound but it turned out to be such a disappointment.  The doctor could not make a definite gender call because of the position of the baby.  Out the window went all my big plans for the kids to discover if their new sibling was a boy or girl on Christmas Eve.  He did date the pregnancy as being May 19th instead of the 24th but we'll probably stick with the 24th.  I was a bit surprised he got five days earlier than we had originally determined.  Maybe it's just going to be a big baby.  I didn't get to see my baby's face either which I was quite bummed about.  :/  I did see some little hands and legs.  No pictures either.  I'm really hoping I can call the local community college when school starts back up in January and get an appointment set for an ultrasound so I can get some nice pictures and find out the gender of our baby.  For now I'm happy I have a healthy baby and I love feeling all the little movements throughout the day.  :)  Can't believe I'm already 18 weeks tomorrow!

At the beginning of this month I turned 28!  I really don't like to think about getting older but I am so thankful I'm still pretty "young".  I can't imagine mothering six young children if I were ten years older. The time passes too quickly these days.

We spent two days at Disneyworld at the beginning of this week.  They were long days but we enjoyed ourselves.  Poor Connor wasn't feeling too well due to teething but I was thankful that he had a much lower activity level.  The highlight of the trip was seeing the Osborne lights at Hollywood Studios.  One street with the buildings covered in lights that "danced" to music.  It was amazing!  We met up with some friends for that which was fun.

Tomorrow I will be baking some Christmas cookies to take to people at church and making deviled eggs for our church Christmas party on Sunday after Mass.  I will also be playing/singing at two Masses next week.  One at 5:30 PM on Christmas Eve and one Christmas morning.  I think we will all go together Christmas morning then come home for brunch and gifts.

Hopefully I can get back to blogging during our holiday.  I've just been so tired at the end of the day after schooling and doing everything else around the house that all I want to do is just sit and do nothing.  Therefore my blog has been shamefully neglected.  Anyhow Merry Christmas and I'll be checking back in soon!